Bissett Insider

Venture Design Studio Winners

As part of the Innovation and the Entrepreneurial experience course (ENTR 2301), Venture Design Studios, students identify a problem and find an innovative solution using the Lean Startup methodology. Throughout the year, approximately 45 external experts provide feedback and insight to 500 participating students.

At the end of the semester there is Venture Design Studios finals where the top 7 teams pitch their ideas. This semester, the winning venture and people’s choice was Safe Stir,   an innovative and discrete stir stick that could identify whether a substance has been put into a drink.

The Venture Design Studio is a great example of an experiential course that seeks to drive the entrepreneurial skill-set of our students. Congratulations to these innovative students!

Bissett CFA Ethics Team has won again!

For the second year in a row, the Bissett School of Business team has won the CFA Societies of Canada Ethics Challenge regional round!  The Bissett team beat out teams from  the University of Alberta, University of Calgary, University of Lethbridge and SAIT.

The Bisset team will advance to Nationals which are to be held in Calgary this coming May. Representing the Prairies Region,  they will compete against the top schools from the other Canadian regions: BC, Ontario, Quebec and the Maritimes.

The Bissett team is comprised of Aliza Carrol (BBA – Financial Services 2020, Houston Higgins (BBA – Financial Analysis 20190, Gurdit Khatra (BBA – Financial Analysis 2019), Alaina Magnusson (BBA -Financial Analysis 2020) and Allana White (BBA – Finacial Analysis 2020).

As faculty advisor, Bissett Professor Cathy Roy-Heaton would like to mention how proud she is of their efforts and the quality of their analysis of a very complex governance -ethical scenario.

Their success is a direct reflection of the quality of our Finance program! Congratulations Team!

Bissett Accounting Students Society Fall Financial Accounting Case Competition

The Bissett Accounting Students Society held their Fall financial accounting case competition this past October. Nine teams, comprised of two students each competed for prize money sponsored by the CPA Education Foundation.

Congratulations to the following winners:

1st: Derek Beavan and Sultan Sahota

2nd: Dillion Hyde and Carl Florence

3rd: Mehza Sikandar and Kisanet Berhane

Special thanks to judges Adrian Surban CPA (Atco), Jennifer Cheung CPA (CP Rail, and Shiraz Kurji CPA (Bissett Associate Professor in Accounting).

Also thank you to the CPA Education Foundation for their continued support .

2018 -2019 Bissett CFA Scholarship Recipients

As part of the CFA Institute University Affiliation Program membership, the Bissett School of Business is able to award CFA Level Exam Scholarships through the Financial Analysis Concentration.

The finance department has been allocated 15 scholarships for the December 2018 and June 2019 exams. Each scholarship is worth an approximate $900 USD and is administered by the CFA Institute.

The Scholarship selections were made by a committee consisting of Bissett Associate Professors in Finance Allan Dwyer, Carlton Osakwe and Cathy Roy-Heaton. In addition to the requirement of the student recipients being in their final year of studies (BBA GM Major with a Financial Analysis Concentration), the committee also factored in career ambitions and their contribution to the finance program during their time at MRU.

December 2018 Examination: Michael Croft, Shahla (Shay) Hussain, Dylan Nemeth, Fabjan Pepaj.

June 2019 Examinations: Michael Boulter, Quinn Bromley, James (David) Carlson, Maxim Chiguy, Serge Combot, Syed(Jay) Hussain, Ahsan Khan, Riley McCallum, Victor Power-Romero, John (Cam) Price, Austin Vrabel.

Congratulations to all of our student recipients and thank you to the committee for their time and attention given to their thoughtful selections!

MRU FSO and RMA host inaugural RMA Alberta Commercial Lending Case Competition at MRU

On September 27 and 29, the Risk Management Association of Alberta ( “RMA”) and the MRU Financial Students’ Organization (“FSO”) co-hosted the inaugural RMA Alberta Commercial Lending Case Competition on the MRU campus. This competition was modeled after RMA competitions which have been held in the United States.
The event was only open to MRU students.  Thirty two BBA students ( primarily financial analysis and financial services ) signed up and were assigned to 8 teams, each team having an industry mentor (a local commercial lender or banking executive ) who provided each team individualized assistance with their analysis.  the event also included a 75 minute “Commercial Lending 101” seminar, lead by a leading local banker from RBC.
The main portion of the competition had the student teams analyze a provided scenario with both qualitative and quantitative methods to produce a recommendation in an executive summary and commercial lending term sheet.  The mentors provided one hour of limited assistance to their team during the four hours.    Each team then presented their executive summary and term sheet to a panel of judges, over a 10 minute presentation and an 8 minute question and answer period.   The judging panels consisted of local credit risk and banking executives.
The top three teams were:
FIRST: $1400 prize : Team B: Austin Vrabel, Riley McCallum, Connor Nodrick ( 2nd year), Gurdit Khatra
SECOND: $1000 prize: Team E: Sam Lonnberg, Matthew Lonnberg ( 2nd year), Shameel Damji (3rd year), Joseph Neil
THIRD: $600 prize: Team F: Cam Devlin, Ahsan Khan, James Carlson, Enma Calderon ( 2nd year)
The RMA raised funds from several local financial institutions to cover the $3000 prize pool, exceeding expectations!
“Our students were outstanding ambassadors of our program.  Our RMA partners, the judges and the mentors spoke with me throughout the two days of the event and said glowing things about our students: the quality of the analysis, their eagerness to learn and their professionalism were all noted.  In total, 17 corporate-commercial bankers and credit risk professionals came to our campus and worked with our students in some capacity over the two days of the event”  — Catherine Roy-Heaton.
Catherine would like to thank all the industry partners, volunteers and students who made the event the success it was. Special Thanks to Catherine for her continued mentor-ship of the Finance students and the MRU FSO.

Bissett students compete in the X-Culture Global Symposium in Macerata, Italy

Bissett would like to congratulate  Associate Professor, Abdulraham Chikhouni and his contingent of seven Mount Royal University students for their participation in the X-Culture Global Symposium in Macerata, Italy (July 29 – Aug 4, 2018). The symposium brings together thousands of students, from over 40 countries to “compete, collaborate and learn the challenges and best practices of international business consulting.”  The  students were subject to a competitive vetting process of a pool of approximately forty thousand students. Representing Mount Royal were:  April Beaurivage, Catherine Chow, Chelsea Patricio, Colin Murphy. Farkhunda Niazi, Portia Allen and Samuel Velazquez.
The main feature of the symposium was to provide consulting for four Italian companies and doing so within teams comprised of students from different countries. The MRU contingent was excited to have the team of Farkhunda Niazi as the winner of the Cocci Grifoni case. This is a  great achievement for Farkhunda and for the entirety of the group. All of the other students were very close to winning.
Congratulations to all of our participating students and a special thank you to Abduhl for his dedication and mentor-ship to the competing students!

Bissett student Djordje Calic to present his honours thesis research at Administrative Sciences Association of Canada Conference

Bissett School of Business is pleased to announce BBA student and recent graduate Djordje Calic will be presenting his honours thesis research, “How do we make decisions under uncertainty? Examining how a tutorial influences gender differences in risk propensity”,  at the Administrative Sciences Association of Canada (ASAC) conference in Toronto, this coming May.

Djordje is also the BBA honours Thesis Award winner and runner up for the Dean’s Award for this same honours research project.

Congratulations Djordje and good luck in Toronto!

The annual Bissett Stock Market Challenge sees a record number of student participants

The ATB Investor Services Investment Challenge, otherwise known as the Bissett Stock Market competition, wrapped up at the end of March after seven months. Starting in September 2017, this year saw a record number of 33 teams compete.

The winning team of Austin Glenn, Lucy Javorcikova, and Harrison Lane had an outstanding return of 92%. The second place team of Jarett Bishop, Rob Flach, and Graham Perry managed an impressive 54% return, and the third place team of David Carlson, Amy Gillies, and Ahsan Khan were close behind with a return of 44%. All three teams are the recipients of cash prizes. The winning team is immortalized by having their names inscribed on the Stock market competition trophy. This year’s competition was the 13th edition of the popular competition.

Congratulations to the students and special thanks to Jim Fischer, Associate Professor and faculty adviser for the competition!

Bissett HR Student Society hosts successful case competition

Bissett Associate Professor, Dr. Melanie Peacock, is pleased to announce that through the diligence and organization of the Bissett Human Resources Students Society, the inaugural HRSS Case competition was a huge success! Comprised of two member teams, over 40 students took part, each team applying their analytical skills to a case written by Angela Champ.
The group was fortunate to have the input of volunteer industry judges:   Mr. Darin Markwart from Intact Insurance and a  Bissett Alumni; Mr. Tom McNerney from Nexen and Ms. Jackie Ross from STARS.
Winning Team: Stephanie Gallant and Paula Higgins

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Bissett students win 2018 CFA Society Winnipeg Ethics Challenge!

Bissett School of Business would like to congratulate the winning team of the 2018 CFA Society Winnipeg Ethics Challenge: Dylan Assen, Tiffany Doyle, Harrison Kozak, Andy McAuley, Graham Perry and Faculty Adviser, Catherine Roy Heaton.

Winners, 2018 CFA Winnipeg Ethics Challenge, Mount Royal

Our Bissett team competed against six other universities that are members of the CFA Institute University affiliation program and/or embed financial ethics into their curriculum. Those institutions include the  University of Alberta, University of Calgary, University of Saskatchewan, University of Manitoba and the University of Winnipeg.

“The teams had four weeks to analyze and evaluate a case which presented several ethical dilemmas and then identify the violations of the CFA Institute Code of Ethics and Standards of Professional Conduct.”  Students presented their findings, gave recommendations and were grilled by a panel of industry professionals.  Bissett Chair and faculty adviser of the team, Catherine Roy Heaton,  indicated the students excelled through their preparation and work ethics, teamwork, strong presentation skills, comprehension of the Code and Standards and the ability to apply their learned acumen to “real world applications” is what made them the stand out team.

The team will be representing Bissett at Nationals in Vancouver this coming May, competing against the top teams from across Canada. Bissett School of Business  wishes the students a successful showing in Vancouver and would like to extend our thanks to Cathy for her continued dedication and mentor-ship to the CFA Ethics team!